Throat Surgery Silences Gotti

U.S. & Latin America - U.S. News to Note

February 25, 2002

NEW YORK -- Jailed mob boss John Gotti is unable to speak after emergency throat surgery three weeks ago, and his lawyers are demanding they be allowed to have bedside meetings with him, the New York Post reported Sunday. The cancer-stricken Gotti, serving a life term for murder and racketeering, was left silent at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, after undergoing a tracheotomy to enable him to breathe after tumors in his neck began choking his airway, the Post said. Prison officials could not be reached for comment.